Zheng Shen was busy until very late before returning home. He walked into the study, moved the heavy bamboo slips on the shelf, and took out a wooden box. The box was covered with a pair of plain cloth, wrapped loosely with thin ropes.

He untied the rope, spread the simple cloth, and showed a map in front of him. This was the map he used to travel to Sanfu and measured it inch by inch by inch by inch by inch by his feet. His fingers stroked the map and stopped slightly at a place. This was his hometown Zheng County, with the west mountain of Huashan to the south, and the Wei River to the north. This was the fertile Guanzhong Plain, which supported Sanfu's millions of people... After famine and war, it is probably less than one million now.

Hundreds of thousands of Red Eyebrows troops arrived, and Guanzhong suddenly had hundreds of thousands of mouths, and the people of Guanzhong could not live. If they wanted to survive, they really had to open up land and plant more grain. Even if they didn't, they could plant the land abandoned due to death and escape, which could greatly alleviate famine. Farming and farming were indeed a good way, and a visionary trick.

Zheng Shen is very familiar with the wasteland in the northeast corner of Zheng County. There is a lake there with many fishermen nearby. The lake is surrounded by weeds. If it is fully cultivated into fertile fields, there are probably thousands of hectares and thousands of hectares of fertile fields, how much grain can be produced!

However, farming is a slow skill, and it will not be effective until next year. The little emperor thought it would last for a long time, but does he have this time? Do he have this condition? Do those people around him who are eyeing him to slowly grow grain?

No, Zheng Shen shook his head, slowly put away the map, and tried hard to drive away the sentence lingering in his mind, "If His Majesty the Emperor will win the world in the future..."

This is what he said today, and he said it without thinking. Now, if you think about it carefully, this is not all a saying that encourages Sun Bada to transport grain. It seems that this idea has been regarded as a possibility by him.

This was an unknowing change. He had never considered this possibility at all. Zheng Shen had always believed that the little emperor who popped out of the crack of the stone had no future. He was just a crappy puppet under a crappy actor, a destined passerby in history.

Liu Penzi is a small cowherd, young, has no foundation, and has no power. His situation is even far less than that of Emperor Gengshi Liu Xuan. Although Liu Xuan was forced to the throne by someone, he has his own family power. Although he cannot monopolize the power, he at least gained some of the power.

Even though the young emperor gained power and controlled the entire army, the future was still bleak. The Red Eyebrow Army was a pure thief, with almost no talent with political ability, and could not even match the predecessor of the Gengshi regime - the Green Forest Army. The Green Forest Army was also a thief. However, later merged with the powerful people in Nanyang and had some officials with political vision and ability to govern the country.

Zheng Shen is a strong-willed person who firmly grasps the standards and only helps with things, and will never devote himself to the results. Unexpectedly, in just over ten days, his seemingly unbreakable ideas have a gap, so that occasionally some ideas will penetrate into his head: Maybe this little emperor is also qualified to be a participant in the world competition? Or go further and become the one who wins?

In any case, this is still a very, very unlikely result.

Zheng Shen tried hard to pull his reason back and analyze it calmly, rather than letting himself think randomly.

Today, Luo You's words made him feel moved. What should come finally came. The little emperor had ambition and had the idea of ​​seizing power. It was a matter of time. Even if he didn't have it now, he would be pushed forward by the ambitions of his subordinates.

Although the little emperor did a pretty good job in recruiting soldiers and disaster relief, it was under the premise that he was extremely weak and Fan Chong and Xu Xuan ignored him. Once the emperor had the strength and attracted the attention of several leaders, they would tighten the lifting line in their hands and firmly grasp the puppet he made. With his thousands of baby soldiers, can he compete with Fan Chong, who holds hundreds of thousands of troops?

The chance of winning is too small.

Zheng Shen smelled the danger from Luo You's words. Political struggle is cruel. If he stands in the team, he will bear the possible consequences of failure. Luo You has firmly stood on the side of the little emperor, and Zheng Shen has not made a bet yet. But as long as he is under Liu Penzi's hands, in the eyes of others, he is a party, gods fight, and little ghosts suffer. Fan Chong may not be like the little emperor, but he will never be ruthless to them.

If you are successful, you will benefit the world; if you are poor, you will be safe. As a Confucian scholar who is unsuccessful and has been safe all the time, protecting himself is a daily operation that he has become accustomed to.

Maybe it's time to leave.

He called his son Zheng Bai, who had just reached the crown, with a young man's unique vitality on his face.

Zheng Bai just heard about the emperor's decision to farm. He was thinking about how to count the number of hungry people and allocate the land when he suddenly heard his father ask him to pack up his things and prepare to set off with Sun Bada to Shangjun tomorrow.

"Father, Sun Bada has been running around Shangjun's commercial roads all year round. He is very familiar with it. I don't need me at all. What can I do?"

"You go directly to Yuzhi County, Shangjun to pay homage to the Marquis of Yiyang, and then stay with him. Don't come back. I will go and meet you in a few days."

The former Marquis of Yiyang, Fu Chang, was the great-grandson of Fu Jiezi, who made meritorious service for beheading King Loulan. He was abandoned by Wang Mang and lived in his hometown. He was a very influential prominent family in the area. When Zheng Shen was young, he was a man-in-law by the emperor and was quite similar to Fu Chang Chang who was in Chang'an. The two often interacted with each other and often wrote letters even after they separated. At this time, Zheng Shen wanted to leave the county, and the first person to think of him.

Zheng Bai was shocked and said, "My father didn't leave at the beginning, why are he going to run away now?"

"It was to avoid thieves, but now it was to stay away from the struggle between their monarch and ministers. Although thieves only seek wealth, fighting in the court will cause blood, and internal fighting is better than war. We father and son do not have to sacrifice our lives for the fight between thieves."

"But Your Majesty is not a thief now! Throughout history, where are there thieves who provide relief to the victims? Using your own money and food to support the people of the world, isn't such a monarch the benevolent lord the father often said?"

Zheng Shen shook his head and said, "Your Majesty is virtuous, but he is not born at the right time. He is young and cannot convince the public. He is among the thieves, and has no power and no one to assist him. Even if he has a talented person, it is difficult to achieve success."

"A man is already an adult at the age of fifteen. Besides, Your Majesty is premature and wise, although he is young, he understands the truth. No one is effective at this time, which does not mean that no one will assist you. Your Majesty's reputation for disaster relief and the reputation has been spread, and the talented people in the world will definitely come to you. At this time, Your Majesty's power is still weak. If your father cares about his heart, he will be treated well by Your Majesty and will hope to achieve the same achievements as a lord in the future."

Zheng Bai was particularly brave today and had a vague intention of arguing with his father. He looked at Zheng Shen's face and said, "Isn't assisting the wise ruler, pacifying the world, and spreading benevolence and righteousness the father has always been his ideal?"

"What do you know about a yellow-mouthed child? Talking around here, go quickly!" Zheng Shen was inexplicably a little irritated and rarely scolded his son, although this "yellow-mouthed child" is already twenty years old.

He would not change his plan. His eldest son Zheng Qing had gone to Hexi to take refuge, keeping the Zheng family's roots, and staying to wait for opportunities. At the beginning, he insisted on not leaving, but he was utilitarian and refused to stay away from the political center. On the surface, he taught his disciples behind closed doors, but in fact he sat down to observe the situation in the world.

He was not optimistic about Gengshi, nor did he look forward to Chimei, but he still wanted to see with his own eyes whether the Red Eyebrow Army was really a group of pure thieves as rumored outside, but the result was as expected. Zheng Shen immediately concluded that this dynasty established like a joke must have been a flash in the pan.

If anything beyond his expectations, it was this little emperor. His porridge and disaster relief efforts definitely surprised Zheng Shen, and his series of operations to establish the Yulin Camp from scratch were also dazzling. It can be seen that he was a person with integrity, ability and means. Judging from his actions, the little emperor was both kind and wise, which was enough to make Confucians follow him.

But Zheng Shen still refused to bet, not only because of his caution, but also for an important reason. His friend, Cheng Lu, the priest in Deng Yu's army, sent someone to pass on a letter. The book praised Liu Xiu, who had just become emperor in Hebei, and urged Zheng Shen to go east quickly and join Liu Xiu's camp to strive for the merit of following the dragon.

Liu Xiu had various halos. He led thousands of troops to defeat Wang Mang's 400,000 troops in Kunyang, and became famous all over the world in one battle. He rode alone to seize Hebei, destroyed Wang Lang, and defeated the bronze horse army, and formed a team of hundreds of thousands out of nothing. He grew stronger at a magical speed and achieved an imperial career within two years. Because he started his career with hundreds of thousands of bronze horse army, Guanxi called him the "Bronze Horse Emperor".

More importantly, Liu Xiu was a scholar, which was incomparable to the Gengshi Army and the Red Eyebrow Army. Liu Xiu was born in a local tyrant and received a good education. When he was young, he entered the Imperial Academy and studied the "Shangshu". He was a very educated person himself.

An emperor who was wise, wise, civil and military, and naturally close to Confucian scholars was too tempting to Zheng Shen. Cheng Lu's persuasion made him very moved. However, Liu Xiu had not issued an order to recruit him, so he was inevitably a little lost when he took the initiative to join him. In addition, the road was blocked, Zhu Yu occupied Luoyang and blocked the exit to go east. The Red Eyebrow Army swept across Guanzhong with a broken bamboo force, and it was impossible for him to go east.

He could have waited for Liu Xiu to enter Guanzhong, but Liu Penzi's recruitment disrupted his plans. Now that he was about to be involved in the power struggle within the Red Eyebrow Army, Zheng Shen made up his mind to leave.

Now that Liu Xiu's former general Deng Yu occupies Hedong, his power will cross the river and advance west sooner or later. If he cannot go directly to Chang'an, he will definitely follow the North Road to capture Shangjun. If he can successfully escape to the county, he can join Dengyu's camp with Cheng Lu's connection. Although it is much lower than the emperor's starting point, it is always much better than being in a trapped army.

Zheng County is his home, Hexi is his pre-burned branch, Shangjun is the third cave he built for the Zheng family, and only then can he protect his wealth.

As for the kindness of the little emperor Liu Penzi, it seems that he can only let him down. Who made him have no future? Zheng Shen sighed.

Zheng Bai was also very depressed at this time. He was a filial son and respected his father very much. However, Zheng Bai was quite reluctant to leave the county. In his opinion, it was a bit unkind and righteous to the little emperor relied on his father so much, but his father wanted to leave.

Zheng Bai helped his father to help disaster relief these days. Although he worked hard every day, he felt proud of his accomplishment as he saw thousands of hungry people survived because of this. He felt that all the hard work was worth it. He heard that military farming was about to be launched. This was to resettle all the hungry people, make long-term plans for the future, and it was also a great opportunity to build his hometown!

Isn’t it much more meaningful to devote yourself to these things and do things steadily than to study behind closed doors? Isn’t the truth mentioned in the book come true in these things?

The 20-year-old young man was full of passion, without any concerns about the world and hesitation. Zheng Bai felt that there was nothing better than that when someone appreciated it, was valued, could do practical things, and realize his ideals.
Chapter completed!